


please just stay dead

by sionis



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Ghosts, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 16:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7276222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sionis/pseuds/sionis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason Todd should have stayed dead. But he didn't and now he's haunting Tim's apartment.</p><p>I love ghost AUs and Jason Todd and that was 1000% the main inspiration for this fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	please just stay dead

**Author's Note:**

> hello thank you for checking out this fic! the songs "please just stay dead" and "fleurs captives" by nicole dollanganger helped inspire this fic. this is my first fanfiction so please let me know what you thought!

_I want to focus on the feeling. I am ghosting through the walls. I don’t care how much you love me, I’ll be floating through the halls._

 --

It had been years after Tim Drake had given up the mantle of Robin and taken on his new identity as Red Robin. Damian was currently serving as the new Robin under Bruce and Tim was glad to no longer be tied to the manor in the way that he once was. He still kept up a regular patrol of the streets of Gotham and assisted Batman and the rest of the family whenever they needed it, but for the most part he was content to fight crime on his own now. It had been a long time coming since he had first convinced Bruce to take him in as his sidekick all of those years ago.

All of those years after Jason Todd had died. Tim had always felt a strong connection to Jason back in those days when he would watch the other boy fly through the streets as Robin. He had liked to think that if the two of them had ever gotten the chance to meet that they would have gotten along well, for the most part at least. But they never did get the chance to meet and even if they had, Tim didn't think they would have ended up particularly close.

Which made it all the more strange that after all of those years since Jason’s death, after years without any incidents or strange occurrences regarding the second boy wonder, Jason would appear one day sprawled across the living room sofa in Tim's apartment.

 --

Tim had left home earlier that night to go on patrol. The patrol itself had gone smoothly without many incidents, there had been a few muggings and some disorderly drunks who had gotten a bit too aggressive but apart from that it had been a pretty slow night all things considered. Tim was thankful because lately he hadn’t been sleeping very well and his body was slowly pushing itself to the point of exhaustion. Even in his sleep deprived state however, he had still been aware that something was off the moment he entered his apartment that night. All of his defenses flew up when he stepped through the doors threshold and he was sure he felt the presence of another in his home.

Tim didn’t have long to react however before his intruder popped his head up from where he had been laying on the couch and said, “Hey replacement, what took you so long? I was wondering when you’d be back. Long night?” The intruder was wearing a tan jacket and had a streak of white running though his otherwise jet black hair. His hard blue eyes seemed to laugh up at Tim as he smirked. He was older now, significantly older than Tim had ever remembered seeing him, but it was unmistakably him.

A series of emotions coursed through Tim; shock, disbelief, confusion, and for a small moment, grief, before Tim quickly stomped it down and after a moment was finally able to muster a response. “J-Jason? Jason Todd? What are you doing here? How…?” Tim stammered, feeling completely caught off guard. He stared for a second, surely this wasn’t right. Had Clayface impersonated Jason again? Had lack of sleep combined with his shaky at best mental health finally gotten the better of him? There was no way this could actually be Jason Todd. What on earth was going on here?

Jason continued to smirk up at Tim from his spot on the couch and Tim resigned himself to simply staring at him from his spot by the doorway until after a moment Jason responded, still with that smug grin on his face,“Isn’t it obvious replacement? I’m back.”

Tim continued to simply stare back at Jason, unsure of how to react. At Tim’s continued staring Jason's expression twitched a bit out of thinly veiled annoyance and he elaborated,

“Look, I know it must be confusing and irritating to your smartass self to not understand what’s going on. Truth is, I don’t know exactly how I came back either. All I know is that a few days ago I woke up right on top of the ground I’d been buried in. After that I headed back here to find Bruce and found... ahh... his new son in my place instead. I did a little bit of digging and found out it’d been quite awhile that I’d been gone from the city… and quite a lot’s happened. That’s how I came to find out about you, the little bird who replaced me after my death. You were Robin for a while right? Figured I’d come see what all the fuss had been about since there's obviously no need for me anymore. So, here I am."

Jason twirled the cigarette bud from the cigarette he had most likely just finished smoking around in his hand, leg swinging off the side of the couch looking bored.

Tim’s eyes narrowed immediately, he still hadn't moved from his spot by the door. “How do I know you’re really Jason Todd? You said you _just woke up_ one day outside of your grave? That doesn’t make any sense… and why… we’ve never even meet before. Does anyone else even know you’re back yet?”

Tim was growing more and more suspicious of his intruder by the minute and he was steadily becoming more and more convinced that there was no way this man was really Jason. If not Clayface it had to be some other imposter. 

Someone was pretending to be Jason and targeting Tim. Probably because Tim had never gotten the chance to actually meet or get to know Jason when he was alive. He only knew what he did because he had been investigating Batman and Robin during that time.

In a certain way, Tim was somewhat familiar with the former Robin which would make him a good candidate to be manipulated by such an imposter. More so than someone who had no prior knowledge of him at all. He knew enough about whom Jason had been to be familiar with him and his backstory but he, quite frankly, didn’t know enough to actually be able to test this new Jason on if his identity was true or not.

Jason let a small sigh pass between his lips before his eyes drifted back up to meet Tim's again.

“Someone might have picked up that something was off by now. It's a possibility for sure. I wasn’t exactly covering my tracks too well for the first bit there. I was more concerned with how I’d suddenly become reincarnated or whatever and I’d been eager to make it back to my… old home and see what was going on. I didn’t know how long I’d been gone, after all.” Jason finished, face blank as he responded to Tim.

Tim continued to stare at Jason’s face for a brief moment. It certainly did look like him. The white streak in his hair was the only difference. But in a way it's addition only served to strengthen the man’s argument. Why would someone who wanted to impersonate Jason leave such an obvious detail out of place? But nothing about this really made any sense at all and Tim was suddenly very exhausted.

“Um, well, ok…” Tim started. “So… what do you think you’re going to do now?” He asked, not directly wanting to ask his intruder to leave. He was so thrown off by this whole sudden situation and he felt he could really benefit from relaying this incident to Bruce and seeing what the older man had to say about it all. Besides, he didn’t even know if the older man knew anything about what was going on but he guessed not. Jason’s response also told him that he hadn’t purposefully let anyone know of his return yet, apart from Tim that is. But if anyone had a right to know that someone was running around the streets of Gotham pretending to be Jason Todd, Bruce sure did.

“Well, honestly, I need a place to stay,” Jason replied, stretching his arms back over the couch’s armrest before crossing them to rest underneath his head. As if he was already up to what Tim had been thinking he continued, “I figured as the guy that _replaced_ me, and didn’t wait much time after my death to jump in I might add, you could open up your lovely home to me for a few days.” Jason stated, eyes taking in the apartment around them lazily.

Tim’s eyes squinted in slight disbelief before one eyebrow rose as he continued to look down at the man spread out in front of him.

“That doesn’t make any sense. Why would you want to stay here anyways? You don’t know me. Why not just go back to the manor? They might have more of an idea about what’s going on than I do.” Tim responded, figuring it was better to just play along with with this guy's story for now until he thought of something better to do.

Jason was quiet for a beat. Almost unnoticeable if Tim hadn’t already been paying such close attention to every move the former Robin was making right now.

“I’m not too keen on dealing with Bats and the rest of the fam right now.” Jason answered, waving his hand nonchalantly. “Listen, whatever is going on I’m not too concerned about it either way. The point is I’m back, somehow, but I’m back. I don’t know anything more than you probably do and I doubt Bruce or anyone else is going to have a better guess about what’s happening. I just need a place to stay for a few days until I figure out what to do next. I didn’t exactly have a lot of friends when I was alive and like I said, I’m not up for dealing with anyone who’s living in that house right now. So, here I am. I want to eventually figure out what’s going on too and all I’m asking is for a few days to recuperate from literally being resurrected from the dead before that. Besides,” Jason continued, fixing Tim with a sharper gaze than, eyes narrowing almost unnoticeably, “I think you owe it to me.”

Tim couldn’t hold back his exasperation at that point, openly rolling his eyes at Jason’s attitude. “Fine, you know what? Whatever. Nothing about this situation could get any weirder anyways. I’m tired and I need to get some sleep and figure out what to do about all… this.” Tim said with a gesture in Jason’s direction. “You can stay here for tonight but that’s no promise that you can stay longer than that. I’ll figure out what to do with you in the morning.” Tim finished before pushing off the wall and moving to leave for his bedroom.

Tim had just crossed the threshold to his room before Jason bounded up off the couch and headed after him.

“Hey hey wait! Just so we’re absolutely clear, you’re not saying anything to Bats or Dick or anyone else about this right?”

Tim turned back to face Jason, growing slightly more and more annoyed after each passing second. He just needed sleep. That patrol must have worn him out more than he had originally thought. He needed a clear head before he made any definite decisions about what to do with Jason, or whoever this strange guy in his apartment was.

Tim had set up his bedroom with extra security measures upon first moving in, in case someone managed to track him back to his home with intents to harm Red Robin. He would just double check that all of the security systems were up in place before he went to sleep. That way if Jason tried anything he wouldn’t be able to get inside Tim’s room and would set off the security alarms. Most of what Tim had of value was still stored back at Wayne manor anyway so he could rest easy. Mostly.

“Why are you so concerned with anyone else knowing whether you’re back or not?” Tim questioned, turning to fix Jason with a slight glare.

Jason’s eyes flitted around briefly as he tried to sum up a response, clearly not wanting to tell Tim the real reason for his strange insistence that no one else know of his return.

“It’s… I’m just not ready for them to know I’m back yet and I know if they do they’re going to try and figure out what’s going on and I just want to enjoy the fact that I’m back for now before I have to start worrying about the whys because part of me knows I’m not going to like the answer. You know how the family can be. I just need some time. That's all I'm asking for.”

Tim did know. He partially understood not wanting to deal with Bruce and everyone else’s insistence and nosiness, no matter how well meaning their intentions were.

“Ok ok, good enough for me.” Tim yawned blinking over at Jason tiredly. “Anyway, I’m going to sleep. Right now. Immediately. You can crash on the couch out there.” Tim pointed halfheartedly to the couch Jason had been laying on moments before. “Oh, and no smoking in my apartment. There’s a porch outside connected to the living room, which you can clearly see. Take it out there from now on. I don't want your cigarettes stinking up my place.”

Jason rolled his eyes but he at least seemed considerate enough not to fight Tim on it and he seemed slightly more humble when he responded, “Ok no smoking got it." He said with a small huff in his voice.

Tim turned to move further back into his room before Jason called out again, “Hey! Wait prettybird, don’t I at least get a blanket or a pillow or something? That couch wasn’t exactly the comfiest ya know.”

Tim immediately froze in his tracks before peering back over at Jason with wide eyes, feeling thrown off guard again that night.

“Wha-what did you call me?”

“I said can I get a pillow and blanket? I get that you are opening up your humble abode here and all and I should be thankful but I don’t think a few niceties are too much to ask for.” Jason responded bluntly.

“Ah, no not that. That’s not what I meant and you know it.” Tim said turning fully around to face him now.

“What, prettybird?” Jason questioned, slowly starting to smirk at Tim now. “Does that embarrass you or something? I mean, in between me and like, Stephanie, you’re definitely not _the_ cutest Robin to ever exist but you’re not too hard on the eyes either.” Jason said, smirk widening. Tim felt red begin to creep up to his cheeks against his will.

“What? Stop it. Don’t talk about Stephanie that way. That's my best friend. You don’t even know her, you haven’t ever met her.”

“Oh sure, that’s what you’re so worked up about.” Jason retorted, eyebrow raised mockingly.

“God were you always this irritating or is it something you've just picked up since coming back?” Tim questioned taking a step forward.

“Hmm maybe it’s just you who makes me this way.” Jason answered looking absolutely delighted at Tim’s obvious growing discomfort.

Jason was definitely making fun of Tim at this point and Tim was almost on the verge of turning his intruder out onto the streets, feeling he'd been more than generous up to this point and wasn't deserving of this harassment. He stepped forward towards Jason saying, “Would you just shut up and go to sleep? Please just get out of my room. I’m done dealing with you for tonight.”

“Hey speaking of that I have a great idea! How about I just sleep in here for tonight instead?” Jason said gesturing towards the bed behind Tim. “That way all of our problems would be solved! There, look isn't compromise easy?" Jason leered.

Tim was directly in front of Jason now and he finally exclaimed, “Just shut up and get out already would you!?” Before reaching a hand up to push Jason’s shoulder back. But instead of making contact with the other man’s broad shoulder and shoving him out of Tim’s bedroom, Tim’s hand sunk though Jason’s body completely as if it wasn’t even there.

Oh... well... _that_ was certainly interesting.         


End file.
